Introduction to Personal Perception
by penny1200
Summary: After a string of romantic disappointments leaves Annie questioning her intense attitude toward school, she decides she needs to relax. Britta, already planning a trip to Miami with Troy and Abed for Spring Break, invites Annie to join them. With a distance of 2000 miles and some outside help, Annie just might see what she's been blind to all along.


Spoilers: Anything up to and including the season three finale, 'Introduction to Finality'.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot. If I had any claim on Community, Abed would be all mine.

A/N: I'm back with a new story. This isn't the story I initially had planned to follow up my last Annie/Abed fic, but that one is very complicated and I'm still working out some details. Instead, I hope you guys enjoy this one. The idea for it came to me in a dream that I had earlier this week. I couldn't resist turning it into a fic. To anyone who is reading my TBBT story, Proper Visitor Protocol, that one is on hold for now but not abandoned. I also want to remind everyone that I try to write my stories in a more realistic manner, which means that my characters will occasionally screw up; they're not perfect and I would get quickly bored writing them as perfect. That said, I will do my best to keep them in character even in the stereotypical Spring Break situations to come. Please read and review! Thanks!

Chapter One: Maybe Annie Needs to Relax...

_'Only a true friend would be that truly honest.' - Donkey from Shrek_

"So you didn't hit it off with Ivan?"

Annie grimaced at the question. She couldn't believe that Shirley even had to ask. Had she not been listening to her story over the last five minutes?

Speaking over Britta's snickering, she said, "He's an X-ray technician with a hobby in taxidermy because they both have the letter x in them and ten years ago a cartoon robot said that the letter x sounds cool. What was I supposed to do with that? Or better yet: where on Earth did you even meet someone like that?"

When Britta's laughter picked up, Annie reached over to smack her on the arm even as she kept her gaze on Shirley. The older woman had set her up on a date with Ivan, swearing that the two of them were perfect for each other. She had been _very _wrong.

Shirley's eyes were so wide with disbelief that Annie wondered if her eyelids were sore from the strain.

"He attends my church, but I swear I thought that he was normal. A little preoccupied with TV, yes, but mostly normal, sweetie," Shirley explained quickly. "And I didn't think you'd mind the TV thing since you and Abed spend so much time together."

At the mention of her best friend, Annie automatically smiled. The two of them had spent a lot of time together since Britta and Troy had started dating seriously last summer. They watched TV and movies, did their homework together, and she had even helped on some of his reenactments and crossovers when Troy was otherwise occupied. All of the interaction had done wonders for their relationship, and now Annie considered the pop culture genius her best friend even if she wasn't his (that position still belonged to Troy, of course).

Britta let out a gasping cough in the midst of her laughter. Remembering that she was supposed to be upset, Annie wiped the smile off her face.

"I don't mind if my date focuses on pop culture, but there's a huge difference between Abed and Ivan, Shirley. Abed didn't make his major life decisions based on a line from a cartoon." Groaning, she enlightened her friends to one of the most disturbing things that her date had revealed. "Did you know that Ivan is currently in the process of changing his legal name to Xander Xanthos? I love alliteration as much as the next girl, but that's just wrong."

When Britta started choking, Annie leaned forward to pluck the blonde's water bottle from the coffee table and handed it to her. She immediately gulped the water to calm down.

Shirley sighed. "You do have a point. Ivan was clearly the wrong choice for you. Perhaps if you would just let me set you up with Gary..."

"No!" Britta, who finally calmed down, shouted.

Annie rolled her eyes. "I don't think that would be a good idea, Shirley. He's annoying and neither Troy nor Abed likes him."

"If you would just give him a chance, I'm sure that..." the other woman began.

"I think you're underestimating how much Troy hates him," Britta cut her off. "He wants Gary to not exist. Not die, just to never have existed at all. He thinks that the very existence of that man is an affront to God."

"But..."

"Abed calls him the Scrappy," Annie offered conversationally.

"What's that?" Britta asked as Shirley huffed.

"Apparently it's a trope that's named after Scrappy Doo from the Scooby Doo series. In fiction, it indicates a character that develops a large group of fans who hate it. Abed thinks Gary's a real life example," she explained.

"I don't think I like that, Annie," Shirley stated in a sharp tone.

Annie shrugged. "I didn't say it; Abed did. For the record, though, he's kind of right."

Britta snickered. "I agree." She poked Annie in the arm. "And you've clearly been spending way too much time with Abed if you're starting to talk about tropes with people other than him."

"_Anyway_," Annie said, ignoring Britta's last comment because her friendship with Abed was fine. "I think I'm just going to take a break from the whole dating thing. It's been a big letdown. Besides it's time that I could spend focusing on my studies."

While Shirley and Britta spoke over each other (Shirley protesting and Britta questioning), Annie drank from her own water bottle. She quietly wondered how she had gotten to the point where her romantic life was an acceptable topic of conversation.

Actually, she knew exactly when her two friends had decided that her relationships were fair game. She had dated Jeff. Openly. Unlike Britta who had kept her physical relationship with him a secret from everyone.

At the end of August, Jeff had asked her out on a real date. He had apparently decided to take to heart Shirley's advice that he should do what makes him happy. Shirley hadn't been too thrilled to learn that her words were the catalyst for their relationship, but the other woman had gotten over it when she noticed how well Jeff had treated her.

Their relationship was a good one, but the entire study group also thought that it was their business. Honestly, Annie couldn't remember Britta and Troy suffering the same kind of interference that she and Jeff did although Britta assured her that they had. Annie had to admit that she had it easy though. She only had to deal with Britta and Shirley's curious questions. Poor Jeff had been read the riot act by Pierce, Troy, and, oddly enough, Abed. She still remembered the night that Jeff had come back from dinner with her best friend. He had been surprisingly pale and all he would tell her was not to screw with Abed. She still didn't know what her roommate had told her boyfriend that night but given his knowledge of TV and movies, it was probably a pretty creative threat of some sort.

After the first flush of excitement, euphoria, and really excellent sex had worn off, Annie had quickly figured out that she and Jeff didn't actually have all that much in common. They didn't share the same interests, not that they didn't try. Annie wanted to enjoy soccer but she simply couldn't. Jeff had given romantic movies a shot but he thought they were mostly stupid. They couldn't agree on anything - movies, TV, music, food, even something as simple as candle scents. They were great together in bed, but anything outside of the bedroom that wasn't related to school or their friends was turning awkward.

Of course, their issues also ran deeper than the superficial things. Shortly before Thanksgiving, Annie and Jeff had sat down and had a real discussion about their future. Sure, it was only a few months into their relationship, but they had decided that it was important to be honest because of their status in the study group and their history of friendship. If there was no chance that they could work out their differences, they wanted to know sooner rather than later so that they could salvage the platonic side of their relationship.

They quickly learned that they didn't share a common view of the future. Annie wanted to stick around Greendale, where she had grown up, and eventually get married and have kids in addition to her career. Those were things that she had wanted long before she ever met Jeff. He, however, wanted to leave Greendale for a large city and never wanted kids. He knew that he preferred to be his own top priority and he wasn't ready to have to push his own wants and needs aside to accommodate children. He didn't think he'd ever want to do that. But he also thought that kids deserved parents who would put them first. Parents who wouldn't want to run off when things got tough.

Clearly, he was carrying some severe scars from his father and feared becoming him.

In the end, they had decided to split up while they were still on good terms rather than carry on until their differences grew into resentment and, eventually, hatred. Annie felt like they had made the best decision for them. They were still friends; things hadn't even been awkward for more than a couple of weeks after their breakup. The best part, to Annie at least, was that the small place in her heart that Jeff would always occupy would remain untainted by bitterness. They had at least tried, and she was satisfied with that.

Around the beginning of January, she had started dating again.

It hadn't gone well.

"Annie!"

When Britta's voice penetrated the haze of her thoughts, Annie realized that both of her friends were staring at her expectantly.

"Yes?"

The blonde huffed before asking, "_Again_, why don't you want to date anymore? I mean, yeah, the whole Ivan thing was awful, but you've also been really excited after a few of them."

Setting her water back on Britta's coffee table, Annie crossed her arms and grimaced. She was about to admit something that she had kept to herself since she started dating again.

"I've been on twelve first dates over the last three months and not one of them ever called me back for a second."

Britta and Shirley were quiet for a moment, simply staring at her in disbelief. To distract herself from their gazes, Annie looked around the room, taking in Britta's decor. It certainly wasn't her taste, focused mostly on cats and her various causes. Her nose scrunched up when she took in the poster on the wall declaring support for the movement to legalize marijuana. She really hoped that Britta didn't have any of that in the apartment because in the event of a sudden drug bust, Annie might get in trouble. She couldn't imagine what something like that would do to her future.

"But, pumpkin, how is that even possible?" Shirley asked hesitantly, finally breaking the silence.

"I don't know," she admitted reluctantly. "A few of the dates were really good. I just knew that I'd get a call, but it never came."

"You haven't been sleeping with them, have you?" Britta questioned suddenly, sitting up straighter. "Because I used to make that mistake all the time and the guys rarely called after."

"No!" Annie shouted before lowering her voice. "You know that I don't do..._that _unless I'm in a committed relationship."

Her first time not-withstanding, of course. She had been strung out on adderall at the time, so she liked to pretend that hadn't happened.

"Right," Britta muttered. "Don't know what I was thinking. You're a prude; of course you aren't sleeping with men on the first date."

"I'm not a prude," Annie argued. "I just think that..._sex _should only happen between people who truly care about each other. I can't imagine that it would be good with some random stranger."

"Oh, it can be great," Britta sighed nostalgically. "It's still sex, after all. Even without the emotions, the physical stuff is still a hell of a lot of fun."

"So you want to stop dating because no one's called you back?" Shirley asked, ending the tangent that she was clearly unhappy with. "What were the good dates like? Maybe the guys weren't actually having fun."

"That's the thing," she said with a sigh. "I'm pretty sure that they were enjoying themselves as much as I was. There was a lot of talking and laughing."

"You didn't talk about Jeff, did you?"

Shirley's tone was a combination of curious and urgent, and Annie understood precisely why.

"Well, yeah, but not in an ex-boyfriend capacity," she assured the other woman. "I also talked about you two, Abed, Troy, and even Pierce. We all spend so much time together that most of my best stories involve the six of you."

"Maybe that's the problem. Maybe you talked about yourself too much," Britta suggested, brushing her hair out of her face. "Did you ask them any questions?"

Annie nodded. "I know that William, that guy from Abed's script-writing class, has two brothers. Rich..."

Britta smirked. "I still can't believe that he finally agreed to go out with you. He's practically perfect and he's freakin' hot."

"Yeah," Annie agreed because there really wasn't a way to disagree with that statement. "Well, he has some serious issues with his mom. And he wants three kids someday. Sam..."

"Who?" Shirley asked in confusion.

"The Black Rider," Britta explained, a mischievous expression in place. "Seriously, Annie. I don't know how you keep drawing in such hot guys. Tell me you at least kissed Sam. It would be such a waste of an opportunity if you didn't."

Annie ignored the question because it wasn't any of Britta's business.

"As I was saying, Sam likes to bird watch when he's not running Dean Spreck's dirty little errands. I learned a lot about each of my dates. And they were all very different people. So I can only conclude that I'm the common thread of why none of them called me back," she concluded with a heavy sigh.

Shirley frowned. "Oh, muffin, you can't think like that. In spite of your short-sighted choice of religion, you're quite sweet."

Annie restrained herself from rolling her eyes. Over the last several months, Shirley had stopped her conversion attempts but she still couldn't resist the occasional jab at their beliefs. Honestly, she was as bad as Pierce with his racism, not that Annie would ever tell her that. Talk about something that would start an intergroup war.

"How much did you talk about school on each of your dates?" Britta, who had been listening to them, asked thoughtfully.

"Probably quite a bit," Annie said after a moment of consideration. "I spend all my time there, home, or work. And our most interesting stories almost always involve school."

She watched as Britta and Shirley exchanged a significant look and felt her heart sink. She was certain she knew what they were thinking, but she still didn't want to hear it.

"That might be the problem," Shirley suggested. "You can get a little..."

She trailed off, searching for the right word.

"Intense," Britta provided as her calico cat Smiles jumped into her lap.

"Yes," Shirley agreed with a nod. "Intense. You can be pretty intense when you talk about school. It's overwhelming for people who don't know you."

Annie furrowed her brow in thought and absentmindedly stroked Smiles as he crossed from Britta to her. She knew that they had a point. After all, they hadn't even had to say it for her to know what they were thinking. She had always been driven to be the very best in her class. The pressure had initially started with her parents, but at some point, Annie had become her own worst enemy in that arena. Whether it was a residual desire to please her estranged mother or the worry that her future would be in jeopardy if she didn't succeed, she simply didn't know how not to throw herself completely into her classes and homework.

"Maybe I need to relax, but I'm not sure how. I certainly can't decrease my focus on school. If I want to get a good job after graduation, I have to have top-notch grades," she mused, scratching behind Smiles' ear.

"I have the perfect solution."

Curious, Annie turned her head to the blonde sitting next to her on the loveseat. She had a huge grin on her face and her eyes were sparkling in a way that immediately set off the alarm in Annie's brain.

"I'm afraid to ask," Shirley said, having clearly picked up on the same thing.

"Spring break," Britta announced with relish. "You should come to Miami with Troy and I for the week."

"Oh, no. No, no, no," Annie replied immediately, shaking her head vigorously. "I know what happens on Spring Break. I've read the stories. That is the very last thing I need to do."

"Yes, Britta," Shirley agreed with a nod. "Miami is no place for a well-behaved girl like our Annie. I don't even think that you and Troy should go. It's a hotbed of depravity, especially during Spring Break."

The blonde rolled her eyes. "Really, Shirley. It's not like we'd let anything happen to Annie. Besides, it's _Annie_. You just know she'd have a whole list of plans and back-up plans to avoid trouble."

Annie sputtered because part of her felt like she should be offended by that. It made her sound like she didn't know how to have fun!

"Oh, don't even protest," Britta admonished, reaching over to take her cat. "You know you would. It's okay; that's who you are. I just think that you could use to get away from Greendale for a while. Spring Break would be the best time for it, too, because you wouldn't have to worry about school. You know the teachers won't assign anything because they want the time off as much as we do."

"I don't know..." Annie hedged cautiously.

"Come on, Annie," Britta urged. "You need a Spring Break where you can relax like every other college student. Hell, even Ivy League students spend the week at the beach just having fun."

"Not all of them," the brunette pointed out.

"Yes. Not every college student spends their week off partying," Shirley concurred.

"I know that," Britta said dryly. "I'm not saying that we'd be partying either, though. Yeah, Troy and I plan to hit the clubs at night, but we want to see the sights and the beach during the day."

Annie opened her mouth, but Britta held up a hand.

"And just because we go to a club doesn't mean you have to get drunk or anything. You could just enjoy the music, the dancing, and hanging out with us," she explained, forestalling Annie's protests.

"But the cost," Annie finally got out since Britta had addressed her issue with indulging in reckless behavior.

"Don't worry about that right now. Decide whether or not you want to come, and we can figure out that part later. Just think about it, okay, Annie?" her friend pleaded.

Closing her eyes, Annie rubbed her forehead with her knuckles. She hated it when Britta made sense.

"Fine," she ultimately agreed. "I'll consider it."

ooooo

When Annie let herself into her apartment a couple of hours later, she was happier than she had been earlier that night. She was also completely exhausted because she had put in a full day at the superstore where she worked before immediately heading over to Britta's. Walking through her front door, though, any residual stress melted away. She really did love her home.

Kicking off her tennis shoes and shrugging off her jacket, she stowed them in the entry closet. Considerably more comfortable, she crossed the living room to the kitchen table. Abed was sitting there with his laptop open in front of him.

"What are you doing?" she asked, coming to a stop behind him and peering over his shoulder.

She recognized the program that he had open as his movie editing software. She didn't get a look at what he was working on before he saved and shut down.

"I was placing the finishing touches on the Spring Break edition of Community College Chronicles," he responded, pushing down the lid.

"Really?"

She cast a wary look at the laptop. Over the past four years, she had developed a healthy fear of that particular web series. Since she and the rest of the study group were the main characters, Abed often placed them in strange situations. The creepiest part was that the things that happened to them in the series usually happened in real life shortly afterward. It was as if Abed truly was a director manipulating their lives and they were helpless to do anything other than obey him. That was the exact reason why Annie no longer watched the show. She preferred not to know what was going to happen to her. Plus, she had always wondered if the reason why their actions inevitably followed those of the series was simply because the series had planted the ideas in their heads.

"Yes," he answered, his usual monotone in place. "It was an interesting episode. I anticipate viewership to increase for this one as word spreads, although I won't post it until Saturday when Spring Break officially begins."

"Huh," she murmured as a tinge of anxiety worked its way up her spine.

Annie had quickly learned that any time he posted a big episode, her love life tended to descend into chaos. With as poor as the condition of that segment of her life already was, she really hoped that for once someone else's romance was the focus of the episode.

"Well don't tell me about it," she said. "I don't want to know."

Abed stood up. "I know. You don't watch the series for fear of learning your future plot lines."

While he headed for his recliner, Annie opted to go to her bedroom and change into her pajamas. It was late enough that she didn't plan to go anywhere else, and she definitely wanted out of her uniform. Once she was dressed in a pair of red pants with white stars on them and a white tank top, she exited the room. Even before the TV screen was in view, Annie recognized the theme song from The Nanny, meaning that Abed was watching Nick at Nite. Circling the chairs, she curled up in Troy's and waited for Abed to start their regular nightly conversation.

"How was your day at work?"

When he asked the question, she smiled. After she had started her job, Abed had began a routine of asking her about her day every night when she got home. Even if he was only being polite, as she suspected, it was still nice to think that he really cared about what had happened. She also liked having those few minutes to vent when she'd had a bad day or celebrate a good day, like when she was promoted from shoes to cashiering.

"It was pretty average," she said with a yawn. "I had the usual mix of decent and rude people. Two guys asked me for my number. I told them no, of course, but I'm starting to think that I need to wear a fake engagement ring. Maybe if they think I'm in a serious relationship, they'll leave me alone." She paused to seriously consider the idea before continuing with a grimace. "Oh, and some lady saw my Star of David necklace and told me that she'd pray for my soul."

"Prejudice is something that you risk when you wear the sign of your religion in public," he said practically. "Just as I face it when others learn that I'm Muslim."

Annie sighed. "I know that. I just wish religion wasn't such a big deal to everyone." She perked up. "I did have fun with Britta and Shirley, though."

"You always do," he replied without taking his eyes off the TV.

As she always did when she left the girls, she tried to decide how much to share with Abed. He was her best friend, but he was also undeniably a man. For that reason, there were certain things that she didn't feel comfortable discussing with him. Her recent dating troubles was one of them, although she wasn't completely sure why. In fact, he'd probably be a good source of information about men and their strange, strange behavior. Still, her love life just wasn't something she wanted to talk to Abed about. That was why Britta and Shirley were integral to her happiness even if they were a little nosy.

"Britta asked me to go to Miami with her and Troy," she blurted out.

She wanted Abed's take on the idea. He was good with advice, especially given his near-omnipotence when it came to their 'plots'. Glancing over, she saw that he had turned his head to watch her closely.

"That would be weird, right? To go to Miami with the two of them? I'd just be a third wheel," she voiced her main worry, the one she hadn't wanted to offend Britta with since it implied that they'd ignore her on the trip.

"She wouldn't invite you if she didn't want you there," he said matter-of-factly. "Do you want to go to Miami?"

She grinned at the idea, turning back to the screen. "I'd like to although I think I'd be out of place. I'm not really a Spring Break kind of girl."

"If you want to go, you should go. I'm going."

"Really?" she questioned, swiveling her head to him quickly. She was surprised Britta hadn't mentioned that. "You're going too? Why didn't you tell me?"

"You didn't ask."

Annie laughed at the obviousness of his answer.

"Well if you're going, then I think I'll go too. It won't be weird if you're with us," she declared with a smile.

Light-hearted, she climbed out of the chair and went in search of her phone.

ooooo

"Annie?"

Britta's tone was surprised which didn't exactly shock Annie. She knew the blonde hadn't expected to hear from her so quickly. After all, she rarely ever made important decisions without making a list of pros and cons and getting at least one night's sleep first.

"I've decided to go to Miami with you guys."

She listened as her friend quickly stifled an excited sound before responding coolly, "Great. I'll let Troy know."

"Good." Annie hesitated for a moment before adding, "I wasn't sure about going since I thought it was just going to be you and Troy. I didn't want to get in your way. But since Abed told me that he's going too, I know I won't be interrupting a romantic trip."

"Oh?"

The questioning tone of the other woman's voice caught Annie's attention.

"You did invite Abed, too, right?" she asked curiously.

She heard muttering on the other end of the line and then Britta said, "I forgot that Troy had."

Although the answer left her suspicious, Annie shoved the feeling aside. There were much more important matters at hand.

"So when are we leaving? Where are we staying? How much is it going to cost? You said we'd talk about that once I had made a decision," she reminded Britta.

A shuffling sound came over the line and when it stopped, someone else was on the phone.

"Annie?"

She grinned. "Hi, Troy."

"Hi," he returned automatically. "You can talk to Britta about all of this tomorrow, Annie."

"But..."

"No," he said firmly if slightly whiny. "You're interrupting private time. We'll see you for class and study group tomorrow. You can sort out the details then."

She let out a puff of air in annoyance.

"Alright, fine. Tell her I'll talk to her tomorrow," she conceded.

"I will."

Annie was about to hang up when Troy let out her name with a yelp, drawing her attention.

"What is it?"

"Your purple rabbit is in my bedroom," he whispered.

Annie could just picture him huddled over the phone trying not to let Britta hear him. He had a habit of stealing her stuffed animals and sleeping with them, and the purple rabbit was his favorite. She doubted that he'd want his girlfriend to know about that. A small giggle escaped her.

"Really, Troy? Again?"

"It's just so soft and fluffy and warm. I sleep better with it," he admitted, his voice still so quiet that she had to press the phone hard to her ear.

"Okay. Good night, Troy."

"Good night."

Upon hanging up, she let out the laughter that she'd been trying to stifle. She honestly wished that she had known about Troy's love of story time and penchant for sleeping with stuffed animals back in high school. It would have saved her a lot of angst if she had been able to look at him and think 'aww' instead of 'hot.' She was happy that she had the opportunity to know him so well now. There was something to be said for having a male friend that she wasn't the least bit attracted to anymore.

Because as much as she liked to pretend it hadn't happened and although he had been in character at the time, her paintball kiss with Abed was still the best she'd ever experienced. Not even Jeff had topped it while they were dating.

And that knowledge was always at the back of her mind when she thought of Abed, even though he was her best friend.

A/N 2: As you guys can probably tell based on the setup in this chapter, the story is set at the end of their final year at Greendale, so Spring 2013. Also, Jeff, Shirley, and Pierce will play small parts in this story. It'll mostly follow Annie, Abed, Britta, and Troy on their Spring Break adventures in Miami. A little bit of trivia: I work as a cashier at a superstore. The response that Annie received for her Star of David necklace is one that I've received one that I've received word-for-word from customers when they see my necklace and figure out that I'm Jewish (I've also heard worse from customers upon figuring that out). I also have a friend, a fellow cashier, who wears a fake engagement ring to work because she got tired of men twice her age hitting on her.

I'm going to try something with this story that I've never done before: giving a small sneak peek at the chapter to come. Let me know if you like this feature or if you would prefer that I not include it. And so...

Coming in Chapter 2: Britta reveals a secret, Jeff asks Abed for a favor, and Annie writes a list.


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